Work to synchronize the traffic lights along Zaragoza Road northeast of Montwood Drive -- and ease the flow of motorists in the area -- could begin this fall.

The City Council on Tuesday is expected to award an $800,000 contract to Tri-State Electric to interconnect the traffic signals along Zaragoza Road from Montwood Drive north to Edgemere Boulevard using a fiber optic network.

The six-month long project will include connecting nine signal lights that will each be connected to video imaging vehicle detection systems. The city will control the signals from its Traffic Management Center, according to city documents.

The project will be paid for with the city's certificates of obligation approved in 2010 and funds from the Texas Department of Transportation, the documents show.

The connection will help traffic flow in the area, one of the city's busiest, just as the Texas Department of Transportation opens the new Joe Battle-Zaragoza Direct Connectors Project. That work consists of two one-lane overpasses that will connect Zaragoza to Joe Battle over Montwood.

One overpass will take traffic traveling north on Joe Battle northeast over its intersections with Montwood and Zaragoza, dumping drivers on Zaragoza about half a mile before Sun Fire Street. The opposite overpass will take drivers heading southwest on Zaragoza over the intersections and connect with Joe Battle southbound.

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That $25.5 million project began in January 2012 and should be open by Thanksgiving.

In other action, the council will also consider extending a contract with J.A.R. Concrete Inc. for citywide repairs or construction of parkway structures--everything from sidewalks and driveways to rock walls and other fences on city-owned property.

The $3.2 million contract will be paid for with funds from the city transportation department, Community Development Block Grant and Sun Metro from 2014 to 2016. The first two-year contract for the same amount was awarded to the company in 2012.

Also Tuesday, the council will consider appointing Hector I. Ocaranza, M.D., as the local health authority for the next two years.

The health authority administers local laws related to public health, including establishing when a quarantine is necessary and deciding when a dangerous epidemic in the community needs to be reported to other authorities.

The position pays $48,000 for the two-year term and carries no benefits. If appointed, Ocaranza, who has previously held the position, will work under the director of the city's Department of Public Health.

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